An hour or two north beyond the chorten, the memorials to the mountaineers killed on Mt. Everest, is the small break in the path known as Thokla village. This insignificant waypoint on the map was actually quite memorable for us, first with the remarkable view. This sparse collection of two or three tin huts is latched at 15,200 feet onto the side of a steep, rocky slope overlooking an eroded glacier valley, and set at the base of the massive Kongma mountain. This is definitely on the main trail to Mt. Everest, and it is a logical point for making camp since it’s still a bit of work getting on to Lobuche. So there we were, feeling like we had pushed beyond reality and the extent of our imagination after what we had seen starting in Pheriche. There are times when you feel like you must have seen it all, so nothing else phases you, and so as we were making strange new encounters in this land beyond the beyond we no longer had any mental alarms going off.

This village, as I mentioned, had nothing more than a couple of beat up tea houses, a rickety, dark yet drafty outhouse, some rock walls, and a little bit of fairly level and grassy camping space. To the side of the uphill shack was narrow lane of space for us to set up our tents. Fortunately, a couple of the Sherpas in our group had dashed ahead earlier in the day to reserve that meager but adequate space for us since this is place gets a lot of traffic. Huddled about the camping spaces must have been five or more serious trekking groups. It was easy to distinguish the groups because they were wearing coordinated, colorful team outfits. I would have to guess some of the other groups were French, Italian or Eastern European based on my stereotypes of fashion sense. Some of these groups were wearing full-body jumpsuits of yellow or red, and for some reason that just seems to be a characteristic of European fashion.

It seems like Americans don’t go for the jumpsuits and they have quite a few hangups about how they look. I guess Europeans have a lot less to be self-conscious about when it comes to clothing, whether they’re wearing any or not. Even though we weren’t all wearing jumpsuits in our group, we did share a common coordination. We were all wearing Mountain Grabbers logo shells and hats with more subdued greys and black. Regardless of who feels funny dressing up just like everyone else in the team, it was a vital element of success for us to stay together. The porters were also wearing the same colors, so it was easier for us all to keep track of and account for each other. When you start the trek you don’t yet recognize your porters, and they won’t remember your face, so starting out with the same outfits really helps pull together early on.